The second half of Philly’s schedule is set to kick off Saturday night at Chickies and Petes field in the Wells Fargo Center, with the Soul hosting their longtime rival Cleveland Gladiators.
The Soul’s record remains perfect through their first seven games, and while the team clinched their sixth consecutive playoff berth during their bye week with Baltimore and Washington losing, there’s still much on the table in their final seven games over the next nine weeks.
Tampa Bay (6-1) is just one game behind the Soul, and their only loss of the season was Philadelphia’s week two win over the Storm to start the season.
The teams are in a tight race for the top seed in the league and earn home field advantage in the postseason, all the way through the Arena Bowl. The two teams will face off next weekend in South Philly, but every game will be important to stay ahead of the Storm, starting with this weekend’s game against the Gladiators.
Cleveland (2-6) has seen their own problems all year, yet five of their six losses have been by a touchdown or less, including a 69-67 loss to Philadelphia at home on May 5.
The Gladiators’ offense is stacked with potential at every position, starting with dual threat quarterback Arvell Nelson who leads the league in rushing with 166 yards, just ahead of Philly’s Mykel Benson.
Nelson is also a hair above Raudabaugh this season under center, completing 133 of his 202 passes, though the Soul quarterback has thrown for 44 touchdowns compared to Nelson’s 36 (Cleveland’s offense is on the field more than Philly’s as well).
Quentin Sims has led both the Gladiators and the league in receiving through the first half of the year, hauling in 867 yards while coming in second with 20 touchdowns, just behind Tampa Bay’s Joe Hills.
But an important factor to remember with these stats is Cleveland has played one more game than Philly, who has already completed two bye weeks.
The Soul have the advantage of playing in front of their home crowd at the Wells Fargo Center, which will hopefully help shake off any rust from the long break.
Philly’s secondary should have a matchup advantage Saturday, as Joe Goosby and Dwayne Hollis are two of the six players in the league to haul in three interceptions, while Nelson’s six interceptions have been the second most so far this year.
The first seven games haven’t been spotless, but the Soul have been rolling on nearly all cylinders, and the biggest room for improvement has just been consistency.
If they play their ‘A’ game every week, it will be hard for any team to take them out this year.
But every opponent wants to be the ones who hand the defending world champions their first loss of the season, much less their long lasting rival from East Ohio.
No comments:
Post a Comment